Squeezing Til The Sponge Is Dry…

October 14, 2009 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

In the 1970’s and into the 1980’s big tobacco fueled some of the most successful sports branding opportunities in history. Whether it was Phillip Morris’ support of Virginia Slims tennis or NASCAR’s Marlboro Cup, the cigarette brands created some of the most large scale and effective activation platforms in sports history. Then came all the legislation against smoking and the tobacco brands, and for the better in terms of health and social consciousness, all the spending stopped from those brands. So sports moved on, using the lessons learned in many of those activation platforms to bring in new brands who would spend, maybe not at the large numbers of tobacco, but who would continue to grow business and fill the gap. Banks and financial institutions, insurance, and technology, filled gaps with new money and new ways to reach the consumer.